The regulatory costs stem from rules finalized during the administration’s first term and are nearly double those imposed during President Barack Obama’s first term. In contrast, President Donald Trump, even without factoring in Operation Warp Speed, reduced regulatory costs by $11,000 per household. The findings, detailed in a report by Casey Mulligan, Ph.D., a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, also highlight that the costs of new federal rules under the Biden-Harris administration “are more regressive than any of the major monetary taxes used by federal, state, and local governments.” The report states that, as a share of household income, the costs for the lowest-income households are seven times higher than for the top quintile. The data reflects costs limited to administrative rulemaking and omits those from other sources, including executive orders, new federal statutes, and policy enforcement decisions. According to the report, the most significant new regulatory cost comes from the rule aimed at ensuring that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. are all-electric or hybrids by 2032. Various Biden-Harris and Obama-Biden emissions rules are projected to increase the cost of a new car, SUV, or pickup truck by more than $6,000. “While the automobile fuel economy and emissions standards are costly, they still account for only a third of the total regulatory costs, and even less for the Biden-Harris administration,” the report states. “Collectively, health, labor, telecommunications, and consumer finance regulations impose costs that exceed those of automobile regulations.” The report further states that Trump’s administration achieved a net reduction in regulatory costs of more than $1 trillion, compared to increases under Obama ($3 trillion) and Biden-Harris ($6 trillion). The deregulation under the Trump administration included removing new neutrality price controls, the prohibition on short-term health insurance plans, and other Department of Labor rules that discouraged competition in labor markets. “President Trump showed that regulatory costs can be subtracted rather than perpetually added,” the report states.Against the backdrop of the four-day Democratic National Convention (DNC) coronation of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential candidacy, a new report reveals that regulations imposed by the Biden-Harris administration have cost the average American family $47,000.
